Gathering a Green Branch


There are many sources of cut green branches, if not in your own back yard, then at your local city, county, state or national parks departments, college campuses, arboretums, etc.  Get to know the tree trimmers and find out where their branch pile is.  Some may bring a wood chipper with them to the trimming location.  Go there and rescue a branch before it's turned to mulch.  You'll have the benefit of knowing what tree it came from.  My favorite place is, as mentioned, Descanso Gardens, a nature preserve/botanical garden with which I've been associated for many years.  I feel like the trees know me there.  Working with a branch from a tree that you know can deepen the connection you feel with the wood in the making of a flute.

If a branch is to be trimmed from a tree in your yard or property, so much the better.  It's a wonderful experience to play a finished flute under the tree that gave it birth.  Some flute makers, like my friends at Fallen Branch, prefer to use branches felled from the tree by time and the elements.  There is a sensitivity to this ethic that I like.  One that appreciates and respects the natural rights of the tree as a living thing.  This ethic can and should also be applied to pruning.  Indigenous cultures have always taken green branches from trees for use as bows, arrows, sweat lodge poles, basket making, as well as for flutes.  This is done, though, in a spirit of connection with the plant and a deep understanding of its life cycle.  Pruning, if done properly, can increase the health and longevity of the tree (the elements are not always the best caretakers) and no branch should be cut without that intent.  Good pruning is both a science and an art, the fundamentals of which, if you're capable of making a flute, you're certainly capable of practicing.  Here's a link to a very good manual on tree pruning techniques.

If you prune your own branches you have the opportunity to make the cuts with the length of the flute in mind.  If gathering them from someone else's branch pile, you can cut them to size with a good pruning saw so that you only take what you need and so that the branches fit in your car or truck.  Assuming that you're already familiar with bore length/diameter ratio, first visualize the flute in a section of branch and then make your cuts at least 6" longer at each end.  This will allow for any end checking that might happen before you get the green branch back to the shop.  Once there, you can cut it again, closer to your intended length, and then immediately seal the ends.  I like to seal using thin CA glue, since it soaks in a bit, dries fast and won't melt as wax does when the branches are drying in the hot box.  

Before you take any wood from the natural world, fallen or green, open your heart to its existence.  A dried branch on the ground may be home to hundreds of creatures.  A green branch on the tree may be the favorite roosting place for a song sparrow.  As John Muir wrote, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”  So it's important to ask first before taking a branch from nature.  And if the answer returns as a good feeling in your heart then you might want to give something in exchange, as a show of gratitude to the spirit of the tree or place -- some cornmeal, tobacco, a sip of water, a prayer, a song.  With a good heart then, gather ye branches while ye may!